The purpose of this unit is to discuss and explore Mendelian Genetics. The proclaimed "father of genetics" Gregor Mendel used Pea Plants in his experiments because they grew fast, produced many offspring, and were easy/cheap to grow. Through his discoveries my students and I will discuss and explore his theories through experimentation, real life examples, and projects. Major topics in this unit will be co-dominance, dominant/recessive relationships, punnett squares, etc. The main project of this Unit will be "MendALIEN Genetics." Each student will be assigned their own "alien" in which they need to determine specific traits such as; blood type, eye/hair color, face shape, # of fingers/toes, size, etc.
By the end of this lesson I want my students to be able to understand Mendels theories and how they play a major role in todays world. I also want my students to be able to connections between their mom, dad and themselves. Looking at traits their parents possess and traits they themselves possess as well my students will be able to "map out" their parents genes. This will give further insight and practice to give them a competency in this unit.
Learning Performances and Standards
Identify what ideas in what standards you are addressing. Be sure to "unpack" the standards you use to state its subtopics, what students need to understand before addressing this standard, and the probable misconceptions that students may hold. Once you have your standards, you should state your learning objectives for the unit in terms of learning performances that express the cognitive work students will be able to do with what you are teaching them. Use our list of science practices as a resource. Note: You are encouraged to use the standards you or someone else has already unpacked in this class.
7a investigating how information is passed from parents to offspring by encoded molecules (e.g. evidence from electrophoresis, DNA fingerprinting).
7b investigating how the sorting and recombination of genes in sexual reproduction results in a great variety of possible gene combinations in the offspring of any two parents. (e.g. manipulate models to represent and predict genotypes and phenotypes, Punnett Squares, probability activities).
7aa distinguishing the stages of mitosis and meiosis and how each contributes to the production of offspring with varying traits
7bb researching and reporting on the contributions of key scientist in understanding evolution and natural selection (e .g. Darwin, Wallace, Mendel).
Outline, Concept Map, or other Graphical Representation of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
Lesson Sequence
Day 1 - Gregor WHO?!
This lesson will give students an introduction to the Father of Genetics, Gregor Mendel. As the proclaimed Father of Genetics, he is responsible for recognizing the patterns of P1, F1, and F2 generations of pea plant traits. Students will learn who Mendel was and why the contributions he made towards science was so significant. Students will also analyze how he used pea plants (what he did to manipulate the patterns) and what traits he studied. At the end of the lesson students will create their own monohybrid crosses (thinking about traits that they know, or other people have told them came from their mother or father. ie - "Your eyes are just like your mothers!").
Day 2 - No Punnett Intended
In this lesson students will dive deeper into Punnett squares (Dihybrid crosses). Recalling prior knowledge about monohybrid crosses I will ask students what they think should change in the Punnett Square in order to accomodate this 2nd trait being studied (using the board to write out their answers). We will do a couple examples as a class before I give the students their own problems to work with in groups of 2. I am hoping that students will see the relationship between mono/dihybrid crosses and the ratios that they create (each type of cross has a set ratio). At the end of this class I will be giving students a rubric to go along with their MENDALIEN GENETICS Project.
Day 3 - My oh Meiosis
Since students have seen MITOSIS before, I am going to activate their prior knowledge by doing an excersize with them on labeling the steps by looking at pictures. Since MEIOSIS is technically "MITOSIS 2x" I will then introduce the second set of steps known as MEIOSIS. Students will then do an activity on meiosis, allowing them to either create their own drawings of each step OR play with laminated parts of each step of meiosis (further description in Lesson Plan).
Day 4 - Hurry up & Cross Already!
During this lesson students will be doing a MINILAB which allows them to create their own crossing over pairs using clay. First we will review when crossing over takes place (prophase I). Students will hopefully make the connection on how this crossing over effect relates back to Mendels law of segregation. At the end of the lesson I will go over what we learned about crossing over along with a general overview (opening up the floor to any questions students may have before we take the test next class).
Day 5 - Test Time!
Need I say more?! Students will be taking their Chapter 10 test (on Meiosis and Mendel Genetics) and their MENDALIEN projects are due as well.
Assessment Plan
Describe how you will assess your students' understanding of the unit's learning goals throughout the unit. These assessments should include formative assessments, e.g. questions that you ask that probe probable misconceptions, embedded assessments, e.g. activity artifacts, and summative assessments, e.g. tests and quizzes. Note: You are encouraged to use the assessment developed in class in this section.
Rationale
"Passionate teaching can only be recognized, ultimately, in terms of students engaging in productive learning that connects with Real-World problems and events" (Fried, 45). Throughout my EDC classes and articles/journals I have read, I have learned one very important lesson; that lesson is if you want to make a topic meaningful for students, you need to relate it to something that they care about, something that they are interested in. Without making this connection, your lesson and possibly your students are destined for failure. In order to make this lesson more meaningful to my students I intend to make connections with my students and the one thing they care about the most, their friends/family. By learning about punnett squares, alleles, and genetics, my students will be able to make connections between the traits they possess and traits their parents/grandparents/siblings possess. This will hopefully spark their interest in the lesson by trying to find out which traits came from their mother and which came from their father and then comparing their traits with that of their siblings.
When it comes to student inquiry, I believe that it is important to keep students actively engaged and thinking throughout an entire lesson, which is why I intend on asking students for their opinions and answers frequently. Questions that not only make students think, but have them make connections between material they are learning and information they already know would be best in keeping students involved and "building" upon their previous knowledge. Building a strong base for students and then adding on top of that is much more effective then starting at the top (with the hardest information) and working backwards.
1. "Given what you learned about Pea Plants in our plant lesson, why do you think Mendel chose Pea Plants to work with?"
2. "What is it about Pea Plants that make them so ideal to observe?"
3. "You may have blue eyes, but your mom nor your dad have blue eyes, how is this possible?"
4. "Draw a monohybrid cross between 2 heterozygous parents, what is the probability their offspring will be homozygous recessive?"
Assessment for students during this lesson will be a big project at the end of the unit called MENDALIEN GENETICS. This project consists of students recieving an "Alien genotype" and creating the phenotype for it. They also need to use the genotype to come up with the genotypes of the parents of that alien as well. By utilizing all the information learned in class throughout the week, students will hopefully be able to complete this project with high achievement. By giving students a couple of days to do this project, along with class time (they can utilize class time by asking me questions, clarifying anything they don't understand, or student-student help) I hope to recieve projects that support the information correctly and show that students have "mastered" Mendelian Genetics." Of coures their will be other methods of assessment during this unit (mini quizzes, wksts, a unit test, etc) this project remains the bulk of their grade and puts all the information they have learned together.
By providing my students with multiple opportunities for extra help, along with a study guide (for the unit test), worksheets with practice problems (using punnett squares and dom/rec relationships), in class group work, and many different models I hope to scaffold the information enough to make learning easy and fun for my students, but not to the point where they rely on my scaffolding to succeed.
Title: MendALIEN Genetics Author: Mickey Ennis Grade Level: 10th Grade Course: Biology
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of this unit is to discuss and explore Mendelian Genetics. The proclaimed "father of genetics" Gregor Mendel used Pea Plants in his experiments because they grew fast, produced many offspring, and were easy/cheap to grow. Through his discoveries my students and I will discuss and explore his theories through experimentation, real life examples, and projects. Major topics in this unit will be co-dominance, dominant/recessive relationships, punnett squares, etc. The main project of this Unit will be "MendALIEN Genetics." Each student will be assigned their own "alien" in which they need to determine specific traits such as; blood type, eye/hair color, face shape, # of fingers/toes, size, etc.By the end of this lesson I want my students to be able to understand Mendels theories and how they play a major role in todays world. I also want my students to be able to connections between their mom, dad and themselves. Looking at traits their parents possess and traits they themselves possess as well my students will be able to "map out" their parents genes. This will give further insight and practice to give them a competency in this unit.
Learning Performances and Standards
Identify what ideas in what standards you are addressing. Be sure to "unpack" the standards you use to state its subtopics, what students need to understand before addressing this standard, and the probable misconceptions that students may hold. Once you have your standards, you should state your learning objectives for the unit in terms of learning performances that express the cognitive work students will be able to do with what you are teaching them. Use our list of science practices as a resource. Note: You are encouraged to use the standards you or someone else has already unpacked in this class.LS3 (9-11) - 7 - Students demonstrate an understanding of Natural Selection/ evolution by…
Outline, Concept Map, or other Graphical Representation of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
Lesson Sequence
Day 1 - Gregor WHO?!
This lesson will give students an introduction to the Father of Genetics, Gregor Mendel. As the proclaimed Father of Genetics, he is responsible for recognizing the patterns of P1, F1, and F2 generations of pea plant traits. Students will learn who Mendel was and why the contributions he made towards science was so significant. Students will also analyze how he used pea plants (what he did to manipulate the patterns) and what traits he studied. At the end of the lesson students will create their own monohybrid crosses (thinking about traits that they know, or other people have told them came from their mother or father. ie - "Your eyes are just like your mothers!").
Day 2 - No Punnett Intended
In this lesson students will dive deeper into Punnett squares (Dihybrid crosses). Recalling prior knowledge about monohybrid crosses I will ask students what they think should change in the Punnett Square in order to accomodate this 2nd trait being studied (using the board to write out their answers). We will do a couple examples as a class before I give the students their own problems to work with in groups of 2. I am hoping that students will see the relationship between mono/dihybrid crosses and the ratios that they create (each type of cross has a set ratio). At the end of this class I will be giving students a rubric to go along with their MENDALIEN GENETICS Project.
Day 3 - My oh Meiosis
Since students have seen MITOSIS before, I am going to activate their prior knowledge by doing an excersize with them on labeling the steps by looking at pictures. Since MEIOSIS is technically "MITOSIS 2x" I will then introduce the second set of steps known as MEIOSIS. Students will then do an activity on meiosis, allowing them to either create their own drawings of each step OR play with laminated parts of each step of meiosis (further description in Lesson Plan).
Day 4 - Hurry up & Cross Already!
During this lesson students will be doing a MINILAB which allows them to create their own crossing over pairs using clay. First we will review when crossing over takes place (prophase I). Students will hopefully make the connection on how this crossing over effect relates back to Mendels law of segregation. At the end of the lesson I will go over what we learned about crossing over along with a general overview (opening up the floor to any questions students may have before we take the test next class).
Day 5 - Test Time!
Need I say more?! Students will be taking their Chapter 10 test (on Meiosis and Mendel Genetics) and their MENDALIEN projects are due as well.
Assessment Plan
Describe how you will assess your students' understanding of the unit's learning goals throughout the unit. These assessments should include formative assessments, e.g. questions that you ask that probe probable misconceptions, embedded assessments, e.g. activity artifacts, and summative assessments, e.g. tests and quizzes. Note: You are encouraged to use the assessment developed in class in this section.Rationale
"Passionate teaching can only be recognized, ultimately, in terms of students engaging in productive learning that connects with Real-World problems and events" (Fried, 45). Throughout my EDC classes and articles/journals I have read, I have learned one very important lesson; that lesson is if you want to make a topic meaningful for students, you need to relate it to something that they care about, something that they are interested in. Without making this connection, your lesson and possibly your students are destined for failure. In order to make this lesson more meaningful to my students I intend to make connections with my students and the one thing they care about the most, their friends/family. By learning about punnett squares, alleles, and genetics, my students will be able to make connections between the traits they possess and traits their parents/grandparents/siblings possess. This will hopefully spark their interest in the lesson by trying to find out which traits came from their mother and which came from their father and then comparing their traits with that of their siblings.
When it comes to student inquiry, I believe that it is important to keep students actively engaged and thinking throughout an entire lesson, which is why I intend on asking students for their opinions and answers frequently. Questions that not only make students think, but have them make connections between material they are learning and information they already know would be best in keeping students involved and "building" upon their previous knowledge. Building a strong base for students and then adding on top of that is much more effective then starting at the top (with the hardest information) and working backwards.
1. "Given what you learned about Pea Plants in our plant lesson, why do you think Mendel chose Pea Plants to work with?"
2. "What is it about Pea Plants that make them so ideal to observe?"
3. "You may have blue eyes, but your mom nor your dad have blue eyes, how is this possible?"
4. "Draw a monohybrid cross between 2 heterozygous parents, what is the probability their offspring will be homozygous recessive?"
Assessment for students during this lesson will be a big project at the end of the unit called MENDALIEN GENETICS. This project consists of students recieving an "Alien genotype" and creating the phenotype for it. They also need to use the genotype to come up with the genotypes of the parents of that alien as well. By utilizing all the information learned in class throughout the week, students will hopefully be able to complete this project with high achievement. By giving students a couple of days to do this project, along with class time (they can utilize class time by asking me questions, clarifying anything they don't understand, or student-student help) I hope to recieve projects that support the information correctly and show that students have "mastered" Mendelian Genetics." Of coures their will be other methods of assessment during this unit (mini quizzes, wksts, a unit test, etc) this project remains the bulk of their grade and puts all the information they have learned together.
By providing my students with multiple opportunities for extra help, along with a study guide (for the unit test), worksheets with practice problems (using punnett squares and dom/rec relationships), in class group work, and many different models I hope to scaffold the information enough to make learning easy and fun for my students, but not to the point where they rely on my scaffolding to succeed.
Unit Evaluation - Mickey Ennis F09